Introduction

The chapter opens by framing just how dependent life is on the plant world: the land and water of the Earth support an enormous range of plant life, and every other living thing depends on it, directly or indirectly. Long before farming existed, prehistoric humans survived by gathering wild berries, tubers and herbage and by hunting game — an existence that consumed nearly all of their time. Domesticating plants (and animals) changed that by producing a food surplus, which became the foundation on which civilisations were later built; different early civilisations, in different parts of the world, went on to domesticate different sets of plant species to suit their own needs. Economically useful plants are grouped here by how people actually use them rather than by their botanical relationships — food plants, fodder plants, fibre plants, timber plants, medicinal plants, and plants used for paper, dyes and cosmetics — and the chapter works through a representative handful of species from each category rather than attempting to be exhaustive.